Salt Lake Tabernacle

They are in a solid place in Utah.

They are in the Salt Lake Tabernacle preparing this.

On the pipes of the organ, they have a big portrait of Joseph and Brigham Young, and then they also have a portrait of Emma, and they have a floral key, and that's to represent when Joseph said to them that he was now turning the key to them to lead their organization as part of, uh, part of the priesthood, part of the Church.

A lot of people were upset about the idea of Emma's portrait being up there, and Emmeline Wells was the corresponding secretary for Zina Young, and she went and asked Wilford Woodruff, as the prophet of the time, "What should we do?" And he's like, "There's no reason why you should not have Emma up there." And so they did.

It's obviously something that our governor has carried forward in his time, and others are catching on to that idea and feel that it needs more discussion.

And so that happened in the afternoon, and then in the evening, also at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, the Tabernacle Choir was there, and President Dallin H. Oaks was one of the speakers, as I mentioned, the Apostolic Nuncio, as well as Professor Cole Durham and other faith leaders.

It's important that the idea of peacemaking and the idea that people of different faiths around the world carry to their governments the idea that religious freedom is important.

People of different faiths can accomplish positive things in their communities.

This lovely group of people in our community continues to meet as a committee, sometimes in smaller areas.

Sometimes they open, uh, their houses of worship to congregations of different faiths, but always come together once a year for the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable musical tribute.

It is most often held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, and I cannot stress enough what a wonderful evening it is.

There's a call to prayer by the Muslims.

And, uh, Cole Durham, who is a, a law professor at BYU, is, uh, currently the president of this organization and put forth, I'm sure, the invitation for this forum to take place here in Salt Lake City.

And, uh, opening, uh, ceremonies are at the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

Carol, a lot of us heard, uh, President Dallin H. Oaks, uh, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speak at the National Cathedral just a few weeks ago.

Yes.

So anyway, um, you know, playing a lot of these really cool venues.

And not only that, but when we were on tour, my mom would organize, when we were, like, in an area, like for example, Salt Lake City, uh, we pl- I got to per- uh, perform on the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ.

And also when I was on tour, that was the first time I got to play the world's largest pipe organ when I was nine years old.

Uh, thank you, Carl Hersom.

And also to this day, it is used as an active concert hall, with television specials also being filmed there.

The acoustics in the Ryman are second in the nation, only behind the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City for sound quality.

And you really can tell that the acoustics are fantastic just by going there and watching either a segment of the Grand Ole Opry or by watching an artist perform there.

The Ryman Auditorium was also declared a national historic landmark in 2001.

Um, but then at the time of Prop 8, then, like, the message from the pulpit became very different.

It was, like, very aggressive, and there was, like, a little bit of, um, graffiti on the Mormon Tabernacle, like, church, whatever.

[laughs] And, uh, they said...

And, like, the, I guess, whatever news program said that gay people did it, and then the pastor was like, "See? They say that we commit hate crimes against them, but they commit hate crimes against us." And I was like, "What? [laughs] What? This is crazy." And then it was, like, anti, like, Muslim and anti...